Texas Hold’em Poker is a good and very popular Poker game in the world. Below Phlboss will show you the basics of how to play Texas Hold’em Poker.
Basics of Texas Hold’em
First is the concept of Pot: the middle of the table, where everyone places their bets, is called the Pot.
Every time the Texas Hold’em starts, each player will be dealt 2 standard cards, this is your own card and only you can see it, they are called deal cards. Then, in turn, the next 5 cards will be divided into three batches and displayed on the table. These 5 cards are all opened and everyone can see it, and they are called community cards.
The first round of community cards will be 3 cards, the second and final round will be 1 card each. And through each round, the player will have the right to bet, so including the first round, when there are only 2 cards, there will be a total of 4 betting rounds for the players, these rounds are called betting round.
Preflop – The first 2-card round for players
In each Texas Hold’em, before the deal cards are dealt to each player. There will be 2 players required to bet first. In this case, we call it the blinds, because no one has been dealt any cards yet, which means no one has seen a single card yet. According to the rules of the Texas Hold’em, the second person will have to bet twice the amount of the first person, so here we call the first person the Small Blind, and the second person the Big Blind. These are all specialized poker terms that are widely used.
These bets are not placed by anyone, but are taken by the two people sitting to the left of the Dealer (temporarily called the Dealer). This will be changed continuously after each new Texas Hold’em clockwise, starting from the current Dealer. We can recognize who is the current Dealer through the D symbol placed right in front of that person’s sitting position.
As soon as the Blinds bet is placed, each player will receive 2 deal cards to start the first betting round.
What work do you have to do at the betting rounds?
When starting a betting round, you wonder what you will have to do now. Below is a list of selections, of which you will have to make one of each betting round. This is also the basic concept for you to understand how to play Texas Hold’em.
Fold
When you have bad cards, or simply don’t want to continue playing that hand anymore, you fold to discard the hand, and wait for another opportunity. To put it clearly in Vietnamese, fold means giving up cards.
Bet
When no one has placed a bet, and you are the first person to do so in a betting round, it is called a bet. For example, you say: “I bet 10 chips”, and put 10 chips in the pot. After that, those who want to continue the Texas Hold’em must pay a number of chips equal to the number of chips you bet to continue playing, meaning you must also put 10 Chips into the pot. If they feel the amount is quite large and do not want to follow, they will fold.
When you bet the total amount of money you have at the table, it is called Going All-in. When you have gone All-in and still have people following you, your task at this point is just to sit back and watch the betting rounds and how the cards come out, because you currently have no money left to do anything more. When the last round ends, and each player will present their cards to determine the winner or loser, if you win, you will receive the full amount calculated from the round you went all-in onwards, the following rounds. That will belong to whoever has the strongest hand after you.
Raise
When someone has bet before you, also known as betting before you, and you want to raise the bet amount even higher, putting pressure on the opponent, then your action is called Raise. If they don’t dare to follow because the amount is quite large, they will fold.
Call
If there are a few people before you who bet, and you just want to call, that means you will only spend a number of chips equal to the number of chips they bet to call. This action of yours is called calling.
Check
If no one has bet before, you can check so you don’t have to spend any more chips and can still follow the hand. This means that you will not bet anything, and it will be up to the person behind you to act. Whether they bet or check depends on their intention to play.
When Is It Your Turn To Play?
To know whose turn it is to play. Basically this will go clockwise. When this player’s turn is over, it will be another player’s turn.
In the first betting round, the player sitting to the left of BigBlind will always have to act first. From the second round onwards, the person who must act first is always the person sitting to the left of the Dealer, that is, the person who must place a smallblind bet in the first round.
All player bets will be placed in the middle of the table. And this position is called pot. Whoever wins gets the pot.
Flop, Turn, River – 5 community cards
The Flop – The First 3-Card Community Cards Round
After the first round of betting is completed by the players, there will be a round of dividing the first 3 community cards, and of course everyone can see them, people call this the Flop round (The Flop). These 3 cards do not belong to any player, anyone can use them to create their 5 poker cards. This is why they are called community cards.
And this also means starting the second betting round. During the second betting round, you can check, call, bet, raise or fold, depending on the progress of the players on the table. After the end of this second round of betting, the bet is still collected as usual and placed in the pot. After that, everyone will continue to the Turn round.
The Turn – 4th Community Card Dividing Round
The 4th community card will be dealt in this round, and people call this the Turn round. The 4th card will also be opened for everyone to see and placed next to the first 3 cards. It is also used to combine with cards in the player’s hand.
And of course this will be the third round of betting for players, they calculate and combine the cards in their hand with the cards on the table to make the best decision for their actions, because this is a close betting round. last. After the end of this 4th betting round, the bet is collected as usual and placed in the pot. Then everyone came to the River circle.
The River – Community Card 5th Round
The 5th community card will be dealt in this round, and this is also the last community card to be dealt in a Texas Hold’em. This circle is called the River circle. The 5th card will also be opened for everyone to see and placed next to the 4th card. And of course it is also used to combine with the cards in the player’s hand.
This is the 4th betting round and also the last betting round for Texas Hold’em players. After this betting round ends, players will combine 2 cards in their hand with 5 community cards to create the strongest hand and present their cards to distinguish winning or losing, people call it showdown, this is called showdown. This will be explained in more detail in the next section.
The showdown – Do you have the best hand yet?
At the showdown round, each Texas Hold’em player will present their cards (this will be called poker hands) to find out who holds the strongest cards, and that person will be the winner. At this point, a question will be asked: What is Poker Hand?
How do you combine your card into poker hand?
A Poker Hand is always made up of 5 cards. Not 4 cards, not 7 cards, but exactly 5 cards. You only keep 2 cards in your hand, and use them to combine with the cards on the table (community cards) to form 1 poker hand. But you don’t always need both cards in your hand to create a poker hand. You can use 4 community cards, or all 5, it doesn’t matter. The only requirement is to have all 5 cards.
There are a number of other combinations that can still form a poker hand. For example, if you have 5 cards, you will have 1 flush. All types of poker hands will be explained in the next section.
Types of play in Texas Hold’em
There are a total of 3 different types of play in Texas Hold’em Jili game. These are Fixed Limit, No Limit and Pot Limit. But mainly 2 types: Fixed Limit and No Limit are the most popular.
- Fixed Limit: looking at the name, you probably guessed that this is a type of Texas Hold’em with a limit on bets. Playing this type, you cannot bet higher or lower in 1 bet. For example, in a $10/$20 limit Texas Hold’em, you can only bet $10 on the first 2 rounds and $20 on the next 2 rounds. This is the genre that beginners to poker should play.
- Pot Limit: You can bet up to the amount of money in the pot.
- No Limit: You can bet as much as you want! You can always play freely. That means the limit here is only how much money you have.
The whole Texas Hold’em play is like that. Very simple.
But the problem when playing Texas Hold’em is bravery. For example: in the pot there is a very large bet, you want to win to win that number, but your 2 cards are very bad ^^ you are still coldly Going All-in with an amount of up to 5 million USD ?!! The amount of money is large enough to “threaten” anyone, do your opponents dare to call? when in their mind they think you already have a Lobby Crush?!! They will all fold and you are of course the winner even though your cards are very bad. Of course that is an example and it also depends on who your opponent is?
Goodluck!
